The present invention relates to multiple-product merchandising machines and more particularly to such machines which dispense many different kinds and sizes of products from a cylindrical drum mounted within a cabinet and configured to dispense the desired product to a customer upon the insertion in the machine of adequate currency.
Some existing multiple-product merchandising machines of the type to which the present invention relates are generally configured to show to a potential customer as much of the available product as possible without rotation of the drum. This is accomplished in some cases by utilizing transparent shelves and/or walls to separate the shelves into compartments which hold individual products so that only a single product is accessible to a customer at one time. The products are accessible through access doors which are generally locked until adequate currency is inserted to allow the customer to open a door and access only the compartment adjacent it. Generally, the access doors are transparent to allow viewing of the product on the shelves and also an additional viewing area is sometimes provided to enlarge the total number of products that can be seen at one time.
Because of this design approach many other desirable features in such a machine are precluded. For example, it might not be desirable to show as many of the product compartments as possible since the person servicing or tending the machine may wish to leave some compartments empty or at least not visible at certain times. Also, in certain circumstances it is desirable to limit access to only some of the compartments while not others.
It is also a common feature in existing machines to have a common price for all product compartments on a shelf. However, this limits the versatility of the machine since it requires selection by the servicing personnel of items of comparable price or the offering of only a single type of item in all of the compartments on a shelf.
Also, existing drum type machines rotate the drum in only one direction so that if a customer misses a selection he must rotate the drum through a complete revolution before he has access to the compartment again. This is time consuming and impractical for some uses to which the present invention can be applied.
It is also a disadvantage of existing machines that they do not keep track of what compartments products have been sold from or, at least, what compartments have been accessed. This ability has several advantages, discussed in detail below in connection with the present invention, such as determining if a compartment has already been accessed once and thus preventing a second access to the same compartment. This has the dual advantages of preventing a customer from inadvertently accessing an empty compartment from which the product has already been dispensed, or preventing access to a product in a compartment which has been accessed, tampered with and returned to its compartment.